RAWALPINDI: District Coordination Officer (DCO) Rawalpindi, Capt. Saqib Zafar has said that all arrangements for wheat procurement, will be completed till April 12 and provision of 'Bardana' will be started from mid of this month.
He apprised that the procurement campaign would be started in the district from April 20, adding, "whole process is being done in accordance with the directives of the government".
Saqib Zafar said the procurement centers for district Rawalpindi would be set up in Tehsil Gujar Khan and Tehsil Taxila while the focal persons for these centers would be Assistant Commissioners (ACs).
DCO said this while chairing a meeting held here in his office to review wheat procurement arrangements. The meeting was attended among others by District Food Controller Shabir Ahmed Niazi, Additional District Collector Rawalpindi Talat Mahmood Gondal, Assistant Commissioners of Rawalpindi, Gujar Khan, Taxila, Kahota, Kalar Kahar and other officers concerned.
DCO said a comprehensive plan in this regard has been formulated while formation of monitoring committees at district level is aimed at providing the farmers all possible facilities and to make all the process transparent.
He issued directives to the ACs of the Tehsils that the lists of the wheat farmers should be provided to district food controllers till April 8.
ACs Tehsil Gujar Khan and Taxila informed the DCO that the lists would be provided to the authorities concerned before the date fixed in this connection.
The DCO informed that the government has set a 3.5 metric tones target for wheat procurement for the Punjab province while 1000 metric tones target for Rawalpindi district has also been fixed.
District Food Controller Shabir Niazi briefed the meeting about all the arrangements being made in this connection.
The meeting was also informed that the wheat growers would be provided all possible facilities with full payment of the support price of their produce.